


Dancing Queen

by Serendipity16



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dance, Alternative Universe - No Arrow, Competition, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Light Angst, Reality TV, The right amount of smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-07 18:28:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12238305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serendipity16/pseuds/Serendipity16
Summary: Felicity Meghan Smoak, possibly the least coordinated person on the planet, finds herself starring on a reality dance competition. And that's not even the worst of it. Her partner? None other than the incredibly sexy, totally off-limits, playboy, ramble-inducing millionaire, Oliver Queen. Throw in some ex-lovers, accidental innuendos, competition, sabotage, and a stalker? This could have been the worst thing to happen to Felicity so far. Or the best.





	Dancing Queen

"I'm sorry, hang on one moment," Felicity Smoak practically screeched, "you want me to what?" She stared, open-mouthed at her boss, Raymond Palmer, trying her best to push down the hysteria threatening to push to the surface. Not that she was the definition of cool, calm and collected, but she rarely lost herself to panic like this. But this time she was certain the she heard the words 'celebrity', 'dance' and 'competition', strung together in that order with her name thrown right into that mixture. Which, rest  _assured_ , is something that should  _never_ happen. 

Ray sighed and rubbed his hand over his face before muttering, "I thought this was how you were going to react." 

"Well that at least shows that you haven't completely lost your mind," She snapped, placing her hands on her hips, tapping her neon green painted nails against her body as an anxious tick. Her blond ponytail bounced around her head with her angry motions as she talked -well, again, screeched- at her boss. "If you think that I am doing some stupid reality TV competition for you, think again, Palmer. There is not a bonus in the  _world_ that could get me to agree to it." 

Ray rubbed his hand against the back of his neck, struggling to make eye contact with his fuming vice president, "Felicity, look. I was suppose to do the show, you know that. The board wanted us to boost our image and frankly, this show is good publicity. It shows that we know how to relax and have fun with ourselves. It humanizes us, and there are a ton of studies that prove that consumers will feel more comfortable the more human the companies seem." 

"Which is wonderful in theory," she started, "but instead of laughing at myself I will most likely by injuring myself in  _every_ way possible. You know how utterly uncoordinated I am. I can barely walk down a flight of stairs without landing myself in the hospital, how do you expect me to be able to dance?" 

"It's really not about how well you dance, just that you're getting yourself out there-" 

"Well, I have an argument for that, too, because have you  _met_ me? I have a sever case of 'foot in mouth' syndrome so the fact that you want me to go on television unscripted really makes me concerned for your mental health." 

"Felicity," Ray practically sighed before sinking into his chair. "We're in a bind here. The board is really pushing this show, and I was going to do it, but with Anna pushing up the wedding, she's totally freaking out about getting everything planned on time. She basically told me it was either the wedding or the show, Felicity."

Felicity felt herself deflating. Ray had been extra stressed shortly after getting engaged to Anna. Not that they were a bad pairing, it wasn't like that at all. It was normal wedding planning stress, but extra stress nonetheless. She took a deep breath and looked into his pleading eyes and felt her resolve start to crumble. Ray may have been her boss, but he was also her friend. She did care for him on a personal level and she could see the weight this was having on him. What was a few embarrassing weeks over helping a friend? It's not like she would actually make it far anyway. They'd probably throw her with one of the lesser known dancers since she wasn't really a celebrity and she'd be voted off the first week. Second tops. 

She took a deep breath and closer her eyes.  _Frack me._ "Okay, okay, I'll do it." She watched him light up over the few seconds that it took for his brain to accept it and nearly pounced at him, " _but!_ I will not be held responsible for anything that comes out of my mouth that you don't approve of!" Ray when to speak but she cut him off, " _and!_ I want Curtis to take over my projects while I'm gone. He deserves a chance to try some higher level projects." Again Ray opened his mouth to answer and again the blonde cut him off. " _A_ _nd,_ I want to be able to have at least a week vacation to myself after this. No emergency calls, so fourteen hour days, just one week to recollect myself and deal with the utter humiliation that I will no doubt have caused for myself." 

"Felicity!" Ray burst out, stunning her into silence, "it's a deal." 

* * *

A few days later, Felicity prepared for the show in the best way she knew how to. By researching everything she could on basic dancing. At first she felt utterly ridiculous sitting at her computer and typing 'dance terms' into google, but if she was going to do this, she might as well get as much information in her brain as she possibly could. She learned all the terminology she could to make the learning process a bit easier. Hopefuly whoever she got as a partner wouldn't be very well known so she wouldn't really be payed attention to. And even though her partner would have to deal with her sever lack of coordination, at least they could try and appreciate that she learned the terminology. 

She then moved onto researching the professional dancers that she could be paired up with. There were a few people that she really had never heard of before, which made her feel better. Not that she really watched this show or payed attention to the dancing world. but hopefully that's who they would give her. In the interest of fulling researching, she did, however check out some of the better coaches. 

First there was Thomas Merlyn, son of the owner of Merlyn Global, Malcom Merlyn. Felicity had the displeasure of dealing with Malcom on a handful of occasions and none of them were particularly pleasant interactions. She heard that Tommy was much more personable than his father, but wasn't quite sure she wanted to find out. 

Then there was John Diggle, who was a whole lotta man. Like  _frack_ he was a whole lotta man. He looked like a tree. Or like a ton of threes combined. She searched videos of him dancing and was surprised at how flexible he was. He seemed like he wouldn't even be able touch his toes, but he held his own very well. From the sources she found he was very well liked. He stayed out of trouble and seemed kind. She couldn't find any major scandals on him. He was surprisingly ex-military. She made a mental note to find out why the drastic switch from army to dancing.

There were a few others she vaguely recognized. Barry Allan, Cooper Seldon, and Sara Lance, although she supposed she really didn't have to worry about being paired up with Sara. Dance competitions couldn't be that progressive. She almost mindlessly scanned through their information absorbing as much of it as she possibly could. And then she stubbled upon  _him._

Oliver Jonas Queen. That man was what should be an illegal level of hotness. His blond hair was cropped close to his scalp and his blue eyes burned into her, even from the computer screen. He was cut and chiseled and so rawly male it was almost primitive. She didn't need to dig deep to find his past. Jilted lover Laurel Lance, and affair with her sister Sara, his co-star. It was messy, way more messy than Felicity could ever picture herself getting involved in. But she didn't have to worry about that.  They would certainly save their biggest star from someone who they knew would go far in the competition. If she was being honest with herself, she probably didn't have to worry about anyone that she just did research on. They were much too big for her. 

A knock on her office door pulled her out of her thoughts. "Come in," she called to her secretary, Macie. 

Macie opened the door looking frazzled. "Uhm, Ms. Smoak, there's a uhm, camera crew here for you?" She ended it almost as if it were a question. Like she was waiting for Felicity to jump in and say it was all a prank. And google, how Felicity wished she could do just that. Instead she stifled a groan and and gave Macie a nod of thanks before she stood and straightened her skirt. 

"I'll take it from here," she practically muttered, then glided-well,  _tried_ to- out of her office and into the common space between her office and Ray's. There stood a woman, who was clearly in charge. She squared her shoulders and walked over to the woman, doing her damnedest to hold her head up high. "May I help you?" Her voice came out stronger than she thought it would and she felt a little jolt of pride at that. The woman turned her focus on Felicity and smiled. Felicity always imagined camera crews being pushy and abrasive, however this woman's smile seemed genuine and kind. 

She held out her hand, "Hello Ms. Smoak. My name is Caitlin Snow. I've been assigned to you and your partner during your time on the show." 

Felicity took her outstretched hand, but found herself furrowing her eyebrows, "I'm sorry, assigned to me?" 

The woman, Caitlin, nodded her head, her smiling never fading. "Yup, you heard that correctly. Since we have so many competitors at first, they have little camera teams for each pair of partners. It just allows more filming to go on at once, since we only have a week to put the show together. I personally think my crew is one of the better ones to have. Not to toot my own horn but, 'toot, toot'!" She giggled at her own joke and Felicity felt herself relaxing once more. 

She didn't like the idea of having her own camera crew because that meant more time that the cameras had to film some potentially embarrasing material on her, but Caitlin at least seemed right for now, she seemed like a pretty un-abrasive personality. She dropped Caitlin's hand and smiled. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you then. I hate to be the barer of bad news but you probably won't be with me  _too_ long. I am horribly uncoordinated and really just outright clumsy." 

Caitlin chuckled at that, and the corners of her eyes crinkled up. "We'll see about that, Ms. Smoak." 

"Felicity, please, Ms. Smoak is my mother," she joked. 

The brunette smiled and nodded again. "Now today we really wanted to film you finding out who your partner is. It's always a fan-favorite to see the big reveal on the opening show. Would that be okay? We're thinking it should only take an hour, two tops. We won't even really interview you today." 

She fought against the panic flooding her system, and forced her fuchsia lips into a smile, "Certainly. You want to do it in my office?" 

"That would be wonderful!" 

A half hour later after being reworked by hair and makeup- who ultimately kept her blond curls in a ponytail just like she had it before- she was sitting at her desk, waiting for them to call action. They had reworked the cameras at least twenty times, trying to get all different angles. And she got it, she did, but she wasn't mentally prepared for this today, and just wanted to go home, change into sweats and down a pint of mint chocolate chip.

After what felt like another eternity, Caitlin walked up to her, still smiling. "Okay, Felicity, we're ready to shoot. Just pretend you're working on some work. Your partner will come in and introduce himself. Usually people act surprised and go for a hug or something, but really, just do what you feel is right. This is our chance to capture the essence of who you are." 

Felicity tried her best not to laugh at that and just nodded. She turned to her camera screen and contemplated typing something. But something had her reaching for her mug where all her pens were stashed and she plucked out a red ball-point pen, toying it between her fingers. She grabbed a little notepad and began scribbling down some codes that she knew by heart. She didn't know why she didn't just plug it into the computer, but Caitlin told her to go with her instincts and for some reason that just felt right to her. She paused from her writing to check over her work, completely forgetting that the cameras were even here and this was all happening. She let herself get lost in the red numbers that she ultimately knew by heart. WIthout even realizing it, she began chewing on the tip of the pen while her eyes scanned the code intently. 

The knock on the door genuinely startled her and she jumped a little bit, whipping her head around so quickly that her hair smacked her in the face. She felt her eyes bulge and her jaw immediately go slack, releasing the pen from her teeth's grip. A silent scream tore through her mind.  _It can't be him! There's no way this is actually happening!_

"Felicity Smoak?" The voice said, practically dripping charm and seduction. His lips curved into a sultry smile and those blue eyes bore into her. All she could think was they were so much more powerful in person. "I'm Oliver Queen." 

_Well, Frack._

 


End file.
